Almost Human
by invalid92
Summary: Ash runs into Team Rocket again. But how do they act when he's not around? Rocketshipping/queershipping 3rd person omniscient - no real main character or POV
1. Chapter 1

After a long day and a particularly humiliating defeat, Ash and Pikachu look for a place to spend the night. He wasn't even sure exactly where he was at this point. Traveling all the time could get kind of tiring, and today just wasn't his day.

Luckily, Pikachu spotted a decent Hostel not too far from the pokecenter. It looked neat and safe enough, so they went in.

They were greeted by a beautiful young clerk with exceptionally long legs. "Hi there! Are you looking for a place to stay? It sure is getting late!"

Ash looked at his watch. It was almost 11. "Yeah, I guess so. We just need a bed for tonight."

"Sure thing!" The perky clerk rang them up and pointed in the direction of the staircase. "There are some nice big beds in room C. Nobody else has bought a bed in there, so you will most likely have the room to yourself tonight."

The usually friendly Ash was happy to hear that. He wasn't in any mood to be woken up by loud strangers.

The kid and his pokemon entered a large empty room with two long rows of comfortable looking beds. It reminded him of what military barracks always looked like in movies. Only this place was taken care of. Almost like a hotel. The pillows looked so fluffy and inviting. Ash flopped down on the nearest bed to the door. He was exhausted. He didn't even feel like walking to the other end of the room for a bed closer to the window. Tonight was not a night to lie in bed and daydream. He needed some sleep.

Not an hour had passed when two people entered the room. "Oh boy could I use a good night's sleep." A wave of surprise shot through Ash when he heard the voice. He recognized it. It belonged to a certain snarky Meowth.

Ash pulled the covers over a sleeping Pikachu and up to his eyes. He didn't want them to recognize him. Luckily, the three walked right past him and to the beds farthest from the door. Ash was relieved. "I really don't have time to deal with those thugs, I'll just sneak past them in the morning..." Thought Ash as he tried to get some sleep.

James sighed. "A real bed. A real honest to goodness bed with pillows and everything!"

"Wow I can't remember the last time I had by own bed to sleep in..."Jessie sounded relieved.

Ash heard team Rocket undressing, and he caught a glimpse of Jessie unzipping her long black boots. He blushed and turned over.

Around 3 AM Ash was awoken to a sudden noise.

Jessie shot straight up in bed and was trying to catch her breath. Tears streamed down her face and she covered her mouth as if she wanted to scream. Not two seconds passed before James was sitting next to her on her bed with a hand on her back.

"You're okay" He whispered. "I'm right here. It was just a dream. You're okay."

"Oh James" Jessie was clearly still sobbing "It was like she was still alive, I could see her. She was right there. I couldn't stop them. They just kept coming and coming. Why didn't I

turn back? Why did I-" She began sobbing harder and James pulled her closer.

"Shhh... It was just a dream. There's nothing left to do now just try to forget..."

What had happened? From the sound of it, Jessie had been through some kind of traumatic incident. James was clearly privy to it. What was so horrible? The idea of team Rocket having had hard lives came as no surprise to Ash. Most bad guys had rough childhoods...

When Ash turned to look he could see James was in bed with her. She was cradled in his arms still crying softly. James didn't look to happy either. But he did his best to console her. It looked like she was going to squeeze his hand right off his wrist. He kissed her softly on the head. "Try to get some sleep..."

The next morning Ash dressed quickly and quietly so as not to waken the sleeping villains. Pikachu plopped down on the floor with a loud thud. Ash cringed and looked over at Team Rocket.

Still clinging to each other, the two looked so peaceful. They each had a faint smile and a calm expression. They seemed almost human.


	2. Chapter 2

**So I wasn't planning on expanding this story, but I was inspired by a song called "Notes in Constellations" by Chiodos. I highly recommend giving it a listen. Please leave reviews! I may up the rating due to some possible strong language and mature themes, but I'm not going to go all soft-core on you guys lol nothing too racy  
><strong>

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><p>Three months passed since that night at the Hostel. But that incident was not uncommon. In fact, many moments like that happened before that, and a few occurred after it. No matter what, James was always there for Jessie. And she returned the favor.<p>

They both had their moments of weakness, in the silence of the night, and never spoke of them again when the sun came up. They called for each other like a child calls for her mother. For years, they had such an innocent love for each other that got them through even the toughest times.

James thought about all this as he stared up at the sky from his sleeping bag. Recently, the nature of his affection for Jessie was becoming unclear.

They were only 17 when they dropped out of school. They had long since been through the awkward teenage years even by then. There was nothing innocent about either of them. Boys, girls, girls, boys. There had been plenty in both their pasts. When they became partners, neither of them gave any thought about how it could become awkward. They were so comfortable with each other.

James though back to his first relevant relationship. He had been with Kyle for most of the crucial formation of his friendship with Jessie.

What had originally brought them so close was the fact that neither of them really knew if they liked boys or girls yet. Everyone at Pokemon Tech was so rigid and stereotypical. Nobody else was really open-minded enough to accept him how he was. He couldn't really be completely honest with some of his friends.

James remembered the first time he shared his thoughts with his best friend Jake. He and Jake had been best friends for two years, and they told each other everything. Well, almost everything...

"Oh my god look at Karen." Jake was ogling a long-time classmate who had recently blossomed. "Summer was good to her."

"No kidding." James agreed. Karen was a pretty good friend to James. She was cute, but he just didn't think of her that way.

"I think I'm gonna ask her to prom... You weren't going to ask her were you?" Jake asked out of respect for his friend.

"No. I don't think I'm going. They'd never let me go with who I really wanna take..."

"Didn't you hear? They changed the policy. You're allowed to take a non Pokemon Tech student so long as they have proper ID. Things are changing you know. And don't think I don't know about your little love affair with one of the trainers. Come on, when are you gonna tell me? Is it Julie?" he prodded "No? I'll bet it's Becky." James shook his head. He and James had some friends outside of the school who frequented the local gym. "Oh my god it's Sara isn't it? You sly dog, she's like 3 years older than us! Right here bro." He put his hand up expecting a high five.

James just shook his head and sighed. He just didn't get it. "Never mind. You don't get it." James started to walk away

"What? What don't I get? We tell each other everything!"

James was starting to get aggravated. He turned around. "Kyle! Okay? I wanted to go with Kyle."

Jake laughed. "Dude, you're kidding right?"

James looked disappointed. He was afraid he would say something like that. He shook his head and walked away.

"Oh my god... You're serious! I knew the guys used to joke that you two were gay for each other but I always stood up for you because I knew you weren't a fag!"

This made James really angry. He shot Jake an icy look from over his shoulder and lunged at him. It wasn't until he had Jake up against the locker by his collar that he even realized what he was doing. James's one arm was strong enough to pick Jake up right off his feet and pin him against the locker.

"Hm." Not worth it. James composed himself and dropped him. Everyone was staring at them. James left quickly before a teacher could intervene. As he walked away he heard the other kids whispering.

After that day, James was officially branded as a freak. Not only did he lose his best friend, but he was constantly tormented by the other guys for the rest of his stay at Pokemon Tech. He was miserable.


	3. Chapter 3

_"Jessie?" A voice came out of the darkness. "Jessie."_

_"Oh. I'm sorry I must have dozed off." Jessie awoke atop a large boulder next to a beautiful river. The sun was just going down and red light was coming in through the trees. _

_Jessie let out a sigh. She got up and walked towards the water. The water felt freezing as it pooled around her ankles. Usually she would retreat back. She hated the cold. But for some reason she just felt like she had to keep going._

_"Jessie?" the disembodied voice returned. _

_She was waist deep in the water. For some reason she was wearing a white cotton dress. She owned nothing like it and didn't remember putting it on. She watched as the skirt fluttered in the water and floated up past her thigh._

_"Jessie."_

_She turned and faced against the current. Then she slowly leaned back and let the water pull her down stream._

_She felt warm again as familiar hands picked her up out of the water._

_Suddenly she was back in her dorm room. Still soaking wet in her dress she sat on her bed, struck by the absence of the man in the river._

_James walked in and closed the door. Before she knew it he was on top of her was water was rushing in from the windows and from underneath the door. The more passionately she kissed him the faster the water rushed in and soon she was underwater._

"Jessie!" Jessie felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. "Come on it's morning, we have to get going."

Jessie woke up in her usual sleeping bag where she James and Meowth had settled down for the night, next to a small stream. _What a weird dream. _Jessie rubbed her eyes. By the time she got up to pack her things, she had forgotten most of the dream.

Before putting on her gloves, Jessie knelt down by the stream and splashed water on her face. The cold water brought back vague memories of the strange dream. _That's right, I dreamt I  
>was swimming. Swimming? Or drowning? I wonder what that is supposed to represent?<em> She pondered this as she packed up for the day ahead.

As she bent down to place some of her belongings in the basket she felt a sharp pain in her back. "I sure hope the boss will send us some money soon so we can have some proper sleeping arrangements for a change. My back kills!" Jessie was sick of sleeping outdoors.

"Well if we bring him that pikachu maybe he will." James sounded hopeful.

Jessie was still thinking about that dream. "Hey didn't you say they were looking for some water pokemon? Maybe we should try to capture some too." Jessie didn't particularly care for water pokemon, but as any good trainer knows, you have to be ready for any type of attack.

"Well why don't we just follow the river? It's bound to lead to the ocean." Meowth pointed out.

After a little hike down river, Team Rocket found a small strand littered with driftwood and what looked like the remains of a ship. As they got closer, they could see that a small wooden ship was wrecked on the shore.

"Ooh, maybe we'll find some buried treasure!" James ran off to look through the wreck for some rich stuff.

While James was off in his own little world pretending to be a pirate, a sleepy little face appeared from inside the ship's cracked open hull.

"Waaah! What is that thing?" Jessie was caught off guard by the little guy.

"Huh?" James turned his attention to the adolescent pokemon "Ooh! It's a Bidoof!" After a short moment of admiring the adorable little guy James shot Jessie a mischievous look and said "Let's capture it!"

The thing was tiny so Jessie figured she could just throw a pokeball at it and see what happened.

After a few nerve-wracking moments, the pokeball opened up and out came bidoof.

"Huh? Oh well. Arbok! Use Acid!" Arbok came out of his pokeball and attacked the bidoof. The bidoof dodged it and hid behind James.

"Huh?" James laughed. "What are you doing?"

"James quick, use koffing!"

"Aww... Jessie look. He likes me!" The bidoof clearly felt safe behind James. He picked it up and looked it in the eye. "So what's your story kid? Do you live here? Where's the rest of the bidoof clan huh?" James recalled seeing Bidoof living in large communities.

"Bi... Bidooof..." The pokemon was clearly distressed. It began to cry.

"Aww..." James held the bidoof close to comfot it.

Just as Jessie was about to comment on how cute the two of them were together, Meowth chimed in. "All right that's enough, just capture the thing already! The thing's pathetic, it doesn't even have a family."

James shot Meowth a dirty look. "Bob is not pathetic, he's my little buddy!"

Jessie and Meowth both cocked their heads at him. "Bob? You named it?"

James remembered when he was little he used the alias Bob for a while after running away from home. He knew what it was like to have no family.

"Yes. This is Bob and he says he was once captain of this here ship so treat him with respect! Isn't that right Bob? You don't need other Bidoof cramping your style! You're your own man! Why don't you come with us and when we get rich some day, we'll build you a bigger better ship! What do you say?"

Jessie and Meowth continued to stare. "He's finally lost it" Meowth cautiously whispered to Jessie.

"No kidding." Replied Jessie. _Who knows, maybe we could get some use out of this little runt._

"BI, bi bi bidoof!" Captain Bob clapped his little paws together and smiled. Maybe the bidoof wasn't really ever captain of a ship, but James's whimsical stories were just what the little guy needed to cheer up. In all likelihood, the pokemon was just abandoned. Either by a trainer or by the other Bidoof.

The other strange thing about him was that he had dog tags around his neck. Captain Robert Hallow. They had belonged to a human at one point. James's seemingly random name for him made sense now. _Well at least this pokemon has some kind of fashion sense._ Jessie smiled.

As the three of them talked over what to do next, Captain Bob stood on his back legs watching them talk. He turned his attention back and forth, taking in what they were saying. He was almost human.

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><p><strong>Okay, so enter Captain Bob. Again. (If you read my previous fic.) So this is actually how they find him, but the story line is a little different in this one. The events in the previous fic (A Curious New Beginning) don't take place until much later. FYI <strong>

**And yes I know it is very unlikely that Arbok Koffing and Bidoof would be in the same episode but Arbok and Koffing are the two I remember most of theirs and I just kinda like them... They never should have gotten rid of them.**


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